Right Party, Wrong Cause

Hitler’s ambitious yet irrational characteristic is further concretized in this week’s reading as he proposes the foundational principals upon which the NSDAP would be based.

By comparing the inherent properties of the NASDAP to those of religion, Hitler suggest that a party is the “formation of a solid fighting community” (378) with “basic realizations” (380) that has this binding attraction which draws upon people’s conscious, and causes them to follow them wholehearted. I concur with Hitler’s view on the importance of tying empty ideals with a concrete system through will they can be realized, since theory and practice must coexist and complement each other in order to create a meaningful political force. Hitler has this conviction that in order to have significance, these so called “higher ideals” which rationalizes human existence must be incorporated in a way so that they can have substantial impact, such as by “fitt[ing] into the framework of a political party as basic elements” (380) and as a result, be actively acted upon. Only with the backing of this “fighting organization” (380) can idealizations of a man be turned into reality. These concepts that echo the cliché “action speaks louder than words” appear relatively reasonable, far from the extremist beliefs we conventionally associate Hitler with having.

It is interesting how while Hitler’s ideas for goals and operating mechanism of the NASDAP are reasonable; it is his goals are rooted in completely irrational hatred, thus leading the entire party down a politically successful yet horrendous path. Hitler rejects and denounces Marx’s idea of equality for he sees differences, especially that of race, as crucial to establishing the order of nature or survival of the fittest, where the superior triumphs and the inferior subordinates.
While such notions are sensible, what makes absolutely no sense is this hierarchy of races and the value each one has that Hitler arbitrarily imposes upon the party ideology. Hitler preposterously infers, without justification besides possibly over-nationalistic feelings, that the German Aryans are the precursors of “human culture and civilization” (382). And in contrast, he takes his ideals to an extreme by accrediting Marxists, namely Jews, with the complete “annihilation of the independent existence of free nations on this earth” with Marxist.

Perhaps Hitler regarded Marxists as scapegoats for posing threat to his ideology. If there were to be a Marxist worldwide assimilation of classes where equality is established among all, Hitler’s arbitrary idolization of Germans based on the essence of their inherent “difference”, or supremacy, would be baseless. Though Hitler unjustified and self-imposed idea of racial supremacy seems to be an indication of arrogance from an outside perspective, perhaps to the hopeless Germans at the time, it represented confidence and unconditional faith in the glorious revival of the former powerhouse, which they desperately sought after in a leader and a savior. However irrational, Hitler’s beliefs about the Aryans were mesmerizing and inspiring in that they not only appealed to Germans’ psychological need for self-assurance during the bleak times of post wall street crash in the 30’s, but also instigated a surge of national pride that consolidated Hitler’s support, pushing him further into racial madness and eventually bring about the most atrocious genocide of the century.